Best Exhibitions Starting in June 2024
Philippe Parreno "My Room Is Another Fish Bowl" 2018 Installation view at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin Courtesy of the artist; Pilar Corrias, London; Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels; Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul Photo © Andrea Rossetti
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Tokyo Art Beat presents a selection of the best exhibitions opening in June 2024. Bookmark the exhibitions on the TAB website or TAB app and never miss the openings and closings.
- 【Tokyo】Takehisa Yumeji: Taisho Romanticism and the New World (Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum)
- 【Tokyo】Traditional Art With Counting Songs: Works With Numbers in Their Titles (The Nezu Museum)
- 【Osaka】Yoichi Umetsu "Crystal Palace" (The National Museum of Art, Osaka)
- 【Kanagawa】Philippe Parreno "Places and Spaces" (Pola Museum of Art)
- 【Tokyo】Manuscripts from the Naito Collection in the National Museum of Western Art (National Museum Of Western Art, Tokyo)
- 【Kyoto】The Work of Shiro Kuramata: A Microcosmos of Memory
- 【Osaka】Celebrating the 1150th Anniversary of the Founding of Daigoji Temple and its National Treasures (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)
- 【Tokyo】Mitsuhiko Imamori "Satoyama" (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)
- 【Kanazawa】Lines - Aligning Consciousness with the Flow (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa)
- 【Tokyo】Rei Naito "Come and Live - Go and Live" (Tokyo National Museum)
- 【Chiba】Shuki Okamoto Exhibition (Chiba City Museum of Art)
- 【Aichi】Special Exhibition: 130th Anniversary of the Birth of Tamiji Kitagawa - From Mexico to Japan (Nagoya City Art Museum)
- 【Hiroshima】Universal / Remote (Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art)
- 【Kagawa】Katsuya Kamo "Kamo Head" (Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art)
【Tokyo】Takehisa Yumeji: Taisho Romanticism and the New World (Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum)
Yumeji Takehisa, a painter and poet symbolizing the "Taisho romanticism" era, was born in Okayama Prefecture in 1884. Although he never received formal art training, Takehisa developed his unique style through self-study and gained popularity with lyrical portraits of women, known as the "Yumeji style." As a graphic design pioneer, he also worked on book and magazine covers, as well as designs for clothing and other goods, always searching for beauty in everyday life. Featuring approximately 180 works, this exhibition commemorates the 140th anniversary of Takehisa's birth and traces his life from a new perspective based on the latest research.
Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum
Schedule: June 1 - August 25
Fee: Adults ¥1400; University Students ¥1120; High School and Junior High School Students, Seniors 65 & Over ¥700 (*Reservation required)
【Tokyo】Traditional Art With Counting Songs: Works With Numbers in Their Titles (The Nezu Museum)
We are surrounded by numbers representing quantity, volume, order, or frequency. Traditional works of art's titles often contain numbers that indicate their features. What these numbers signify, however, is not consistent. They can refer to shape or form, techniques, and combinations, or customs and concepts. This exhibition focuses on traditional artworks that include numbers in the title, intending to encourage visitors to enjoy traditional art from a more casual and fun perspective.
Venue: The Nezu Museum
Schedule: June 1 - July 15
Fee: Adults ¥1300, University Students ¥1000, Junior High School Students and Under free (*Timed-entry reservation)
【Osaka】Yoichi Umetsu "Crystal Palace" (The National Museum of Art, Osaka)
Contemporary artist Yoichi Umetsu (1982-) focuses primarily on painting while also engaging in a wide range of other activities, such as the formation of a collective called Parplume, rooted in the dream of integrating art-making with everyday life. This exhibition presents an overview of Umetsu's work since the mid-2000s while also exploring the question of "What does it mean to make things?" This promises to trigger a fundamental rethinking of art as something that remains impartial to both aesthetics and politics.
Venue: The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Schedule: June 6 - October 6
Fee: Adults ¥1200; University Students ¥700; High School Students and Under, Persons with Disability Certificates + 1 Companion free
【Kanagawa】Philippe Parreno "Places and Spaces" (Pola Museum of Art)
Philippe Parreno (1964-) is a prominent figure in French contemporary art and one of the most significant artists working today. He employs a wide range of media, including film, sound, sculpture, objects, text, and drawing, while focusing on boundaries between reality, the fictional, and the hypothetical. He also interrogates concepts of art and authorship, collaborating with numerous artists, architects, and musicians. The exhibition at the Pola Museum of Art is one of Parreno's largest solo exhibitions in Japan, encompassing his diverse practice ranging from early works of the 1990s to an installation unveiled for the first time, with his well-known film Marilyn (2012) among the highlights.
Venue: Pola Museum of Art
Schedule: June 8 - December 1
Fee: Adults ¥1800, Seniors 65 & Over ¥1600, University and High School Students ¥1300, Junior High School Students and Under free, Persons with Disability Certificates + 1 Companion ¥1000
【Tokyo】Manuscripts from the Naito Collection in the National Museum of Western Art (National Museum Of Western Art, Tokyo)
Before the invention of printing, manuscripts were the primary medium through which people in medieval Europe preserved their faith and disseminated knowledge. These manuscripts sometimes became luxurious items, adorned with elaborate decoration and elevated to the status of fine art. This exhibition brings together approximately 150 items, mainly from the Naito Collection, along with items from university libraries in Japan. It explores the roles and decorative features of manuscripts prevalent from the medieval to early modern periods, including Bibles, poetry collections, and antiphonaries.
Venue: National Museum Of Western Art, Tokyo
Schedule: June 11 - August 25
Fee: Adults ¥1700; University Students ¥1300; High School Students ¥1000; Junior High School Students and Under, Persons with Disability Certificates + 1 Companion free
【Kyoto】The Work of Shiro Kuramata: A Microcosmos of Memory
Shiro Kuramata (1934-1999) is one of the world's most influential designers today. His furniture and interior designs, frequently made of acrylic and glass as well as metal construction materials, possess the power to captivate the viewer. This exhibition, the first retrospective in Kyoto in 25 years, follows Kuramata's own words and showcases materials like sketches and dream diaries that were fundamental to his creative process, inviting visitors to listen to the messages conveyed by his designs.
Venue: The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
Schedule: June 11 - August 18
Fee: Adults ¥1700; University Students ¥1100; High School Students ¥600; Junior High School Students and Under, Persons with Disability Certificates + 1 Companion free
【Osaka】Celebrating the 1150th Anniversary of the Founding of Daigoji Temple and its National Treasures (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)
Located in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, Daigoji Temple was founded in 874 during the early Heian period by a Buddhist monk, Shobo, who is known under his posthumous name of Rigen Daishi. Since then, it has served as a central temple of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism, attracting the faith of successive emperors, court nobles, and samurai, and playing a significant role in history. The exhibition features approximately 90 treasures from Daigoji, including 14 National Treasures and 47 Important Cultural Properties, displayed on a large scale in Osaka for the first time.
Venue: Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
Schedule: June 15 - August 25
Fee: Adults ¥1800, University and High School Students ¥1100, Junior High and Elementary School Students ¥500
【Tokyo】Mitsuhiko Imamori "Satoyama" (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)
Photographer Mitsuhiko Imamori (1954-) captures the interaction between nature and humans through beautiful imagery and accessible writing, from tropical rainforests and deserts to domestic natural environments. His works, which are based on a unique perspective on nature not bound by traditional ecological photography, have garnered high praise domestically and internationally. Furthermore, he has continued to capture the space known as "satoyama," focusing on the area around his hometown of Lake Biwa. This exhibition showcases selected works from over 200 "satoyama" locations across Japan.
Venue: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Schedule: June 20 - September 29
Fee: Adults ¥700; University Students ¥560; High School and Junior High School Students, Seniors 65 & Over ¥350
【Kanazawa】Lines - Aligning Consciousness with the Flow (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa)
The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, reopens with a collection exhibition after being closed due to the Noto Peninsula earthquake. Focusing on art as a way of engaging with and participating in the world, this exhibition suggests that in the contemporary era of ongoing "becoming," art continues to reveal various cracks through which we navigate to continue living. Explore the different 'lines' in works of art, including the ongoing process of emergence, and discover the intertwining of simple and complex, multilayered lines.
Venue: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Schedule: June 22 - October 14
Fee: Adults ¥1200; University Students ¥800; High School, Junior High and Elementary School Students ¥400; Seniors 65 & Over ¥1000
【Tokyo】Rei Naito "Come and Live - Go and Live" (Tokyo National Museum)
Born in 1961 in Hiroshima, Rei Naito lives and works in Tokyo. Naito is known for her works that combine delicate motifs, everyday objects, natural elements, and interaction with the environment. Throughout the exhibition, Tokyo National Museum halls, illuminated by natural light, will evoke the realms of life and death that once existed with the sun and the intimate harmony between man and nature. Naito's artwork will evoke the continuous creative endeavors in which one can glimpse the longing for "creation" that humanity has repeated, and the pursuit of "life" that connects to the present.
Venue: Tokyo National Museum
Schedule: June 25 - September 23
Fee: Adults ¥1500; University Students ¥1000; High School Students and Under, Persons with Disability Certificates + 1 Companion free
【Chiba】Shuki Okamoto Exhibition (Chiba City Museum of Art)
Shuki Okamoto (1807-1862) was a late Edo period artist renowned for his rich and splendid bird-and-flower paintings, particularly as a master of peacocks. Legend has it that he diligently visited a familiar bird shop for sketching, sharpening his bird illustrations with extraordinary skill, enchanting the people of Edo with his vividly colorful and translucent compositions, and showcasing the beauty of feathers. This retrospective exhibition, marking the first in 18 years, features approximately 100 works primarily from the collection of the Tekisuiken Memorial Foundation, which boasts the world's largest collection of Shuuki's works.
Venue: Chiba City Museum of Art
Schedule: June 28 - August 25
Fee: Adults ¥1400; University Students ¥800; High School Students and Under, Persons with Disability Certificates + 1 Companion free
【Aichi】Special Exhibition: 130th Anniversary of the Birth of Tamiji Kitagawa - From Mexico to Japan (Nagoya City Art Museum)
Tamiji Kitagawa (1894-1989) was a painter and art educator who worked in Mexico. After returning to Japan, he was active in the Western painting scene, based in Tokyo and Aichi, and also engaged in children's art education and mural production. This retrospective exhibition, which marks nearly 30 years since his last retrospective, explores Kitagawa's belief in art, which he pursued both in Mexico and after returning to Japan, taking into account his interactions with artists and art movements during his time in Mexico.
Venue: Nagoya City Art Museum
Schedule: June 29 - September 8
Fee: Adults ¥1500, University and High School Students ¥900, Junior High School Students and Under free
【Hiroshima】Universal / Remote (Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art)
The exhibition title reflects the current century's situation, where capital and information move on a global scale. The artworks, which convey the excesses of surveillance systems, the absurdity brought by precise technology, and the deep loneliness of humans, appear to earnestly confront the present era or the post-pandemic world. This exhibition introduces the works of eight artists and one group, focusing on themes such as "society expanding on a pan-scale" and "the individual becoming remote," examining the social conditions that have shaped this century's society. Exhibiting artists are Daisuke Ida, Xu Bing, Trevor Paglen, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, Hito Steyerl, Miloš Trakilović, Maiko Jinushi, Tina Enghoff, Jeamin Cha, Evan Roth, Natsuko Kiura.
Venue: Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
Schedule: June 29 - September 1
Fee: Adults ¥1300; University Students ¥900; High School Students, Seniors 65 & Over ¥650; Junior High School Students and Under free
【Kagawa】Katsuya Kamo "Kamo Head" (Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art)
This exhibition introduces the work of Katsuya Kamo (1965-2020), a hair and makeup artist who collaborated with the world's most prestigious fashion brands and was active at the forefront of fashion. His avant-garde designs, which combined innovation with elegance and aesthetic beauty, attracted attention at every presentation. The exhibition features headpieces used in shows by leading fashion brands, along with magazine articles, records of his sources of ideas and production processes, and three-dimensional works created in his private time, providing a comprehensive overview of Kamo's creative activities.
Venue: Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art
Schedule: June 30 - September 23
Fee: Adults ¥950; University Students ¥650; High School Students and Under, Under 18s, Seniors 65 & Over residing in Marugame city, Persons with Disability Certificates + 1 Companion free
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